Sanity has returned to our great nation. The dictatorship has been nipped in the bud. Not only have the American people taken Congress back, in a clear rejection of Bush's leadership of his war of choice in Iraq, Donald Rumsfeld (the architect of defeat) has resigned. Hallelujah!
This, by no stretch of the imagination, means that Bush will listen to Democrats or the American people, or seriously consider a new direction in the war. But this does mean that Bush will not have a rubber stamp Congress that allows him to run roughshod over the Constitution and the international treaties that also are American law. Congress has been restored to its separate but equal position that was lost when the people gave Bush his one party government.
To fix the war, Congress must go back and correct Bush's first mistake in the war on terrorism, where he declared a global war on “every terrorist group with global reach.” The war is only against al-Qaida and everyone who helps them. Bush took the focus off Osama bin Laden and focused upon Iraq, then it began to shift again to Iran. Narrow the focus of the war on terror to al-Qaida in Iraq and Afghanistan. Get the people responsible for starting this war.
Nuclear proliferation is a great concern, but it must be a separate issue from the war; just as the war on Palestine must be dealt with separately from the war on terror.
Bush's attempt to merge Israel's war with ours has made diplomatic resolution or peace with the Muslim world practically impossible. These side issues must be resolved, but only after we win this war.
The war, on both fronts, has been handicapped by the strangling of resources by the miserly direction of the egotistical former Secretary of Defense. We are slowly losing both wars because of shortages of men and materiel. We have to immediately double the number of active combat forces in the Army and the Marines, no matter what it takes (even a new draft). We need to repair everything that Bush and Rumsfeld have worn-out and had shot-up, and to double their numbers as well. It is time for a full mobilization of America's power.
This enlargement of American military forces should be financed through a small war tax (just like in World War II), levied on fuel consumption, and by freezing spending on all new weapons systems, with funds transferred to a full American industrial mobilization.
To win the wars, we must fight the al-Qaida elements and deal with the native insurgences, seeking their cooperation to eliminate the foreign terrorists among them. Cease-fires and peace are possible, followed by American withdrawals, if we can fight only our true enemies and not those whose only intention is to defend their countries and to free them from foreign oppressors.
If we are unwilling to do these things, then we will be forced to leave the war on terror, in order to reinforce the homeland, letting the chips fall where they may.
Peter Chamberlin
Wheelersburg
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